your welcome has been so nice and warm
by splendidlyimperfect
Summary: It's Christmas Eve, and it's Gray's turn to come out to his family about his relationship with Sting, Rogue and Natsu. / **Part of 'i'm with them' series, see profile for links**


The drive out to Gray's parents' house was harrowing, and it wasn't just because the roads were hell, or that it was snowing so hard that Natsu had the wipers on full and was going twenty kilometers an hour before the speed limit. Gray's stomach was fighting a war against anxiety, and he was pretty sure he was losing.

"It's okay, love." Sting reached over and grabbed Gray's hand, lacing their fingers together as Gray pressed his forehead against the cool glass of the car window. The feeling of Sting's thumb running over his knuckles was soothing, but just another reminder of what he had to do this afternoon.

Come out. Again.

Telling his parents at fifteen that yes, he thought Melissa at school was pretty but he also checked out his friend Jason had been difficult. His dad hadn't understood at first, but both of them had eventually come around, and when Gray had started dating Natsu, they had both accepted him into the family without any hesitation.

Would it be the same with Sting and Rogue? Would they understand? Or would they think it was some sort of sex thing? Would they ask embarrassing questions, or call them his 'friends'? Would they-

"Gray. Breathe." A tight squeeze on his hand brought Gray back to reality and he exhaled, watching his breath fog up the glass. Sting shuffled closer to him, running a hand up and down his arm, while Rogue looked back from the front seat in concern.

"Sorry," Gray said quietly. He squeezed Sting's hand but didn't look at him. "'m just nervous."

"Yeah," Sting said quietly. The soft sound of Christmas carols on the radio filled the car, and Gray could smell the scent of still-warm butter tarts wafting up from the trunk. Rogue had made them that morning after Gray had mentioned they were his mom's favorite.

"Your parents will understand," Natsu said, glancing in the rearview mirror and trying to catch Gray's eyes. "They're good people."

"Mm." Gray rubbed his face, finally turning to look at his boyfriends. "I kinda feel like I'm going to throw up." He put a hand on his stomach and made a face.

"Hey, no throwing up in the new car," Natsu said teasingly. Gray gave him a half-hearted glare, then sighed and moved over, leaning on Sting.

"Was it a stupid idea to do this at Christmas?" he asked, sighing as Sting ran a hand through his hair. "We're just all going to be emotional wrecks for the next few days."

He felt a pang of guilt as Natsu's face hardened for a second, but the expression disappeared as soon as it came up. Gray sighed. He shouldn't be making such a big deal out of this when Natsu was still struggling with his own family.

"Sorry, sweetheart," he murmured, reaching up and touching Natsu's elbow. Natsu shook his head, flashing Gray a soft smile in the rearview mirror.

"It's okay," he said, turning back to the road and peering through the heavy snow. "Deep breaths. We're almost there."

* * *

 _"Joyeaux Noël!"_ Mika wrapped Gray up in a hug as soon as he walked in the door, snow still blowing around his ankles. The chill of the outside wind blew through the house as the other three shuffled inside, kicking their boots and pulling off their scarves. Gray hugged his mom, sighing happily at the smell of Christmas dinner wafting through the living room.

 _"Joyeaux Noël, maman,"_ he replied, then turned and waved at his father.

"Hello, Natsu." Mika pulled Natsu into a hug as well, then turned and smiled widely at Sting and Rogue. "You must be Gray's roommates."

There was an uncomfortable silence, then Gray gestured for everyone to come into the living room. Silver gave him a hug, then looked at Gray curiously.

"Are you going to introduce us?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Uh." Gray chewed on his lip and Natsu reached out to grab his hand. "Yes. Um. Okay, so, you... remember Natsu. My, uh, boyfriend."

Silver gave him a strange look and Mika raised an eyebrow.

"Yes...?" she said uncertainly.

Gray exhaled. "Okay, um, this is Sting." Sting waved meekly. "My, uh, other boyfriend." There was a confused silence, so Gray barreled on. "And Rogue. My other boyfriend." He shifted uncomfortably. "All of us. Them. Are boyfriends. My boyfriends."

The silence continued, and Silver raised an eyebrow at his son. Gray's heart was pounding, and he definitely felt like he was going to throw up now.

"...well?" he said after a second, his voice small.

"Oh!" Silver shook his head, moving forward to shake Sting and Rogue's hands. "Sorry, I was just waiting to see if there were any more." He winked at Gray.

"Silver!" Mika smacked her husband on the arm, rolling her eyes and then turning to Sting and Rogue. "It's lovely to meet you both. Don't mind my husband, he thinks he's funny."

Sting and Rogue shook their hands in a sort of stunned silence that was quickly interrupted by a loud set of footsteps on the stairs. A young man who looked very similar to Gray but with hair that was nearly white appeared, tugging an ugly Christmas sweater over his head.

 _"C'est qui ca?"_ he asked, raising an eyebrow at Gray.

"Gray's boyfriends," Silver replied, tugging the boy forward and wrapping an arm around him. "Looks like he has better luck than you, eh, Lyon?"

Lyon grumbled, pushing off his dad's arm and reaching out to shake everyone's hands. He raised an eyebrow at Gray. _"Trois chums?"_ Gray rolled his eyes. "Like some sort of harem?" His words were teasing but Gray recoiled a bit, stomach still churning.

"Lyon!" Mika smacked him on the back of the head. "Manners. Apologize to your brother."

 _"Désolé,"_ he muttered.

"Besides, he's doing better than you," Silver joked, gesturing for everyone to follow them into the dining room. "How come he's got three boyfriends, and you've got none?"

* * *

"Mythbusters!" Sting nearly jumped out of his seat as Natsu grinned at him, bowing and then high-fiving his teammate.

"How the hell did you get that from..." Gray trailed off, gesturing vaguely to the space where Natsu had previously been acting out his card from Charades.

"'cause we're awesome," Natsu replied, grabbing a handful of peanuts and tossing them into his mouth.

Gray looked over at the scoreboard – Natsu wasn't wrong. He and Sting were the leading team by nearly twenty points, while Gray, Rogue and Lyon were at the very bottom. Mika and Silver sat almost directly in the middle.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Natsu said, raising his eyebrows and sticking out his tongue at Gray. Natsu hadn't done as well in the earlier game of Scrabble. "I might not be able to spell 'potato', but I can act out 'jackass'." Gray rolled his eyes and nearly gave his boyfriend the finger until he remembered that his parents were sitting in between them.

"I kinda regret kicking him off the team," Rogue admitted, leaning back against Gray. "You think we could bribe him back?" Sting glared at them and pulled Natsu toward him possessively.

"If anything, he's joining my team," Silver said, laughing. Mika glared at him.

"You're terrible," she said, swatting him on the arm.

"You're not a very good partner, dear," he said, laughing. "Next game we're swapping and I'm taking Natsu."

Unsurprisingly, Natsu and Silver won the next round of Charades by nearly fifty points, while Sting and Mika wallowed miserably in last place. Silver high-fived Natsu as they sat down from the last round and Natsu grinned at the others.

"I'm definitely the favorite son-in-law," he said, sticking out his tongue. This time, Sting did flip him off.

"Do you guys even _like_ each other?" Lyon asked, looking between the four of them in puzzlement. Gray laughed and wrapped an arm around Rogue, kissing his cheek.

"Honestly, sometimes I only like this one," he said, grinning at Sting.

"That's not what you said this morning when I was on my-"

Gray reached over and slapped his hand over Sting's mouth, glaring at his boyfriend. "It's probably time for dessert, right mom?"

"I can help," Rogue said, standing up and following Mika into the kitchen. Gray could hear them talking quietly about different recipes, and when he peeked around the corner, he was happy to see that his mother had a wide smile on her face.

"So has Gray ever told you about the time he stripped naked and ran away on the first day of kindergarten?" Lyon smirked as he grabbed one of the butter tarts and leaned back into the couch. Natsu raised an eyebrow at Gray and snickered.

"Lyon, I swear to-"

"Yep, he hated clothes," Silver added, grinning at his son. Gray groaned, covering his face with both hands. "The parents at the playground knew us as 'the ones with that kid that's always naked'."

 _"Papa,"_ Gray groaned as Rogue and Sting began to laugh. Sting was on the floor in front of Gray and he leaned back, resting his head on Gray's knees.

"I mean, that's not that different from ho-"

"Shut _up,"_ Gray growled, covering Sting's mouth again with both hands. "You are the worst."

"I dunno about _worst,"_ Lyon argued, raising an eyebrow and dragging his gaze over Sting's chest.

"I will murder you," Gray growled. Lyon snorted, popping the rest of the butter tart in his mouth. Gray gave Lyon a dirty look, then leaned down and kissed Sting upside-down, probably more forcefully than necessary. Sting couldn't help the soft moan that escaped him, and Gray pulled away, giving Sting a gentle smile. "Ours," he whispered, just loud enough for the three of them to hear it.

"All right, that's enough bickering," Mika said, pushing the tray of sweets over to the four men. Lyon stuck his tongue out at Gray, who rolled his eyes and returned the gesture. "You two are just as bad as when you were little. And I have far more embarrassing stories about _both_ of you than you have of each other."

They both looked over to Mika, eyes wide. "Maman, nobody wants to hear those stories," Gray said hurriedly. Lyon nodded in agreement.

"I do," Rogue said mildly, giving Gray an amused grin. Gray scowled.

"Lyon was right, I don't like any of you," he grumbled. Natsu laughed, leaning against Gray's shoulder.

"Well, there was the one time that Lyon was pushing Gray around in the laundry basket," Mika said, looking at her sons and smiling. "Gray must have pissed Lyon off one day so Lyon pushed him down the back stairs."

"Sadist," Gray grumbled, glaring at his brother.

"There's like, four steps." Lyon rolled his eyes.

"I fell out head first and ended up with stitches!" Gray protested, gesturing to the scar on his forehead.

"Well, the next day Gray managed to convince Lyon to let Gray put his fingers in one of those Chinese finger traps," Mika continued, eyes bright with mirth, "with his hands behind his back. Then he shoved ice cubes down Lyon's pants."

Natsu snorted, giving Lyon a pitying look.

"Whatever," Lyon grumbled, leaning back in his chair. "That was some weak revenge."

"You're just mad 'cause you cried like a little-"

"Language," Mika interrupted Gray and gave him a stern look.

 _"-osti d'pleurnicheur,"_ Gray continued smoothly.

"Gray Fullbuster." Mika glared at her son. "'Language' does not mean switching to French and you know it."

 _"Désolé, maman,"_ he grumbled, chastised. Sting laughed, tipping his head back into Gray's lap. "Don't gimme that," Gray said to Sting. "I'm sure your Oma has plenty of embarrassing stories about you." Sting's eyes widened and he glanced over at Rogue worriedly.

"Of course she does," Rogue said, grinning. "Wait until you see the baby book."

The conversation eventually returned to things like work and school and family, and when Gray looked at the clock again it was already past midnight.

"We'd better get going," he said, standing up and stretching.

"I'll get the leftovers," Mika said, beckoning for Gray to join her in the kitchen while the others packed up their gifts and took everything to the door. Once they were in the kitchen, Mika turned around and gave Gray a soft smile.

"You're giving me the Look," he said in French. His stomach was still unsettled – even though his parents had been nothing but wonderful all evening, the unease of earlier wouldn't go away.

"They're all lovely young men," Mika said quietly, reaching up and putting a hand on Gray's face. He felt warmth rising in his cheeks but he didn't pull away. "When you were little," Mika continued, her voice shaking a bit, "you always had so much love for everyone. You cared for everyone you met, and it was like your heart had no limits."

Gray could feel himself starting to cry and he turned his face into his mother's hand, bringing his own up to cover it.

"It's clear they love you," she said, grabbing his other hand and squeezing it. "And you love them as well. Your heart's just... it's too big for just one person. And you've filled it with all of these wonderful people. That's a beautiful thing, my love. You have a beautiful heart."

"Maman," Gray whispered, reaching up to wipe the tears from his eyes. "I was so worried..."

"You didn't have to be," Mika said, pulling him in and kissing his cheek. "We love you so much."

Gray let himself relax into his mother's embrace, closing his eyes and feeling safe and loved. The tension in his stomach started to dissolve and he sighed. "I love you too," he said roughly, rubbing his eyes.

Mika smiled, then turned to the table and grabbed the containers of leftovers, handing them to Gray and ushering him to the door.

"It was wonderful to meet you all," she said, giving each man a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Silver followed suit, but Lyon stood back a bit and waved goodbye instead.

"Thanks for everything," Sting said as Mika hugged him. She smiled at him fondly as he headed out the door.

Gray was the last one to leave, and as he turned to go, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Silver pulled him into another hug, crushing Gray against his chest.

"Your mom already said everything," he said roughly, and Gray pulled back, surprised to see tears on Silver's cheeks. "Just... I love you. Thank you for bringing them into our lives."

"You guys," Gray said, shaking his head and rubbing his face. He turned to Lyon, raising an eyebrow. "You gonna cry too?"

Lyon snorted. "You've never made me cry before, I'm not gonna start now," he said, but his voice held a note of fondness that wasn't usually there. "They're cool, though."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Gray said wetly. "But thanks."

"All right, your boys are waiting for you," Mika said gently, stepping forward and standing on her tiptoes to kiss Gray's forehead. She gestured to the car that was running on the driveway, and Gray could see Natsu bickering with Sting in the front seat.

"Go home with them," Mika whispered. "Love. Be loved."


End file.
